The Portland Trail Blazers are considering a push to find a naming-rights sponsor for their Rose Garden arena as part of a larger effort to generate additional revenue for the franchise.
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| Paul Allen opened his Rose Garden arena, named for the district where it resides in Portland, in 1995. Allen’s Trail Blazers are now considering finding a naming-rights sponsor. |
"We need to raise revenues, and one of the big opportunities is the arena," said newly appointed team President Steve Patterson. "It will be just one of many sponsorship revenue areas we will look at."
The 19,980-seat Rose Garden opened in 1995 and is owned and operated by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns the Blazers and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. The Blazers, who have the NBA's highest payroll at $105 million, are expected to lose between $90 million and $100 million this year.
Patterson joined the Blazers earlier this month. He said securing an arena sponsorship is a key component of his turnaround strategy for the franchise. He said other potential new revenue streams would be discussed, but didn't give specifics.
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| Sponsorless names |
NBA arenas without
naming-rights deals |
| Arena | Team | Year opened |
| The Arena in Oakland | Golden State | 1966 |
| Bradley Center | Milwaukee | 1988 |
| Houston Arena* | Houston | 2003 |
| Madison Square Garden | New York | 1968 |
| New Orleans Arena | New Orleans | 1999 |
| The Palace of Auburn Hills | Detroit | 1988 |
| The Pyramid** | Memphis | 1991 |
| Rose Garden | Portland | 1995 |
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| * Opening for the 2003-04 NBA season |
| ** The 2003-04 NBA season will be the arena’s final season of hosting the Grizzlies. The team moves to the FedEx Forum in Memphis in 2004. |
| Source: Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal research |
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The team already has sponsorships for the four inside "cornerstones" of the arena. It was not immediately clear if a naming-rights deal would affect those sponsorships.
"It will be one of many things we will do," Patterson said. "We need to sit down and look at the team's marketing plans, and naming rights is part of that."
The potential value of a Rose Garden naming-rights deal could be hurt by the arena's age and Portland's relatively small market size: Its population of 2.3 million ranks No. 19 among NBA markets. The most recent naming-rights deal in the NBA was Federal Express Corp.'s 23-year, $90 million deal that puts its name atop the future home of the Memphis Grizzlies, FedEx Forum, opening in 2004.
"Companies will look at a potential deal in Portland and see a 9-year-old building, but the value depends on how the Blazers package the deal," said David Cope, director of business development for Gilco Sports & Entertainment, a Maryland-based sports marketing company. "On the positive side, Portland is a market that has an avid fan base and a strong attendance history, and the Blazers are the only team in the market so I think they could get a top-dollar deal."
Patterson said he's not concerned that the arena's having an already established name could drive away corporate interest or limit the value of a deal.
"I got a naming-rights deal for the Compaq Center in Houston and it was a 20-year-old building," Patterson said of the six-year deal valued at $5.4 million he negotiated in 1996 with Compaq Computer Corp. while he was president of Arena Operating Co., management company for the Compaq Center. Patterson negotiated the 30-year, $300 million naming-rights deal for Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans, while he was with that NFL team.
